One of my annual diaries (when I remember to do them) is honoring the Warsaw Ghetto uprising during WW II, which happened to coincide with Hitler's birthday in 1943. I happen to feel that it was a particularly good birthday present for Hitler: the defeat of his elite force by a bunch of half starved, barely armed Jews.

This year the anniversary is particularly poignant because, as in 1943, Passover began at sundown on April 19th and April 20th, the day the uprising took off, was the first day of Passover.

Last night, at the Seder we attended, the hostess compiled her own Haggadah for the evening. Within it she included something that seemed out of place and too modern...except that it was perfectly appropriate for a night that in 1943 was the Passover Seder, such as it was, just before the Warsaw uprising. In her photocopied Haggadah she included this (source unknown):

We remember the heroism of the Jews--men, women, children--who fought in the ghettos, in the forests, on the war fronts, together with all of democratic humanity, to stop the curse of fascism from engulfing the earth. We will be true to their memory by being vigilant in the cause of peace and freedom in our land and throughout the world.

In memory of Passover 1943, here's to the very appropriate gift the Jews of Warsaw gave to Hitler:

April 20th is Hitler’s Birthday. In 1943, Heinrich Himmler wanted to give Hitler a particularly nice birthday present. He decided that in honor of Hitler’s birthday he would eliminate the entire Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw, which had been causing trouble in the early months of 1943. The idea was to eliminate a group of uppity Jews and please Hitler in the process.

Instead, the Jews of Warsaw gave Hitler a present that he certainly didn’t want: months of armed rebellion that DEFEATED the German army repeatedly and wasn’t completely crushed until October 1943, though major combat operations, to borrow a phrase, were completed around May. Including the periods of more sporadic fighting before and after the main unprising, this resistance lasted far longer than the German take over of Poland as a whole, which took scarcely one month. It is pointed out in Melvin Konner’s book Unsettled that the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, largely fought by Jews but with some Polish uprisings occurring at the same time and inspired by the Jewish uprising, also lasted longer than the time it took Germany to defeat France, though again you have to include the period of more sporadic fighting.

The uprising was partly inspired by the Socialist Zionist organization Hashomer Hatzair (coincidentally, my mother briefly belonged to this organization in her youth). Hashomer Hatzair is still in existence long after Nazi Germany got its ass kicked and has become the buzz word for dismal brutality and failure. The Warsaw insurgency started in January, 1943 with sporadic fighting by barely armed Jews. By the end of January the Ghetto was actually controlled by two armed Jewish organizations, one led by Mordechai Anielewicz, of Hashomer Hatzair, and Zivia Lubetkin (who survived the uprising) and the other led by Dawid Mordechaj Apfelbaum, a former officer in the Polish army. As Passover began on April 19th, Himmler’s birthday present to Hitler also began, with thousands of German, Polish and Ukrainian forces attacking the Ghetto in force. The Nazis moved in at 4 a.m. spreading throughout the Ghetto. They occupied the entire Ghetto within 4 hours, believing that their extermination of the Jews could begin with ease. One can imagine their anticipation of a massacre of helpless Jews. Then, at the intersection of Mila and Zamenhofa Streets, the insurgents struck with a single captured machine gun, ample small arms fire, and many Molotov cocktails. The Germans were completely routed by the Jewish insurgents by 2 P.M., providing Hitler with a major embarrassment for his birthday.

The next day the German, Polish and Ukrainian forces moved in again and took part of the Ghetto, taking their revenge on those left behind in the Jewish hospital. I guess if they can't beat armed insurgents, they needed to make themselves feel manly by murdering infirm hospital patients. Shows how cowardly Nazis are.

The Jews counter attacked and drove the Nazis back once again. The next day the German general decidded to set fire to the Ghetto in an attempt to burn the problem. But the uprising continued, though more as a guerilla war rather than the pitched battles of the first two days of Passover. Mordechai Anielewicz was killed by a German assault on May 8. On May 16th the Germans declared victory over the now completely destroyed Ghetto. But attacks and assassinations continued as the Jews refused to give up. Fighters continued to exchange gunfire with Germans all the way into September. In October the rubble of the Ghetto was removed, leaving nothing behind.

But even after that, Jewish survivors of the 1943 Warsaw uprising, including Zivia Lubetkin, participated in the wider, predominantly Polish uprising in August 1944.

I should note that I find many possible dates for the end of the uprising. Some fighters placed it as early as May 10th. The Germans officially announced “Mission Accomplished” on May 16th. By then the Ghetto was burned out and the leadership of the resistance either killed or escaped. But fighting did continue, killing Germans here and there, until much later.

You can read an riveting account of the Warsaw Ghetto and the uprising by a survivor, here.

Photos are taken from a Polish language site dedicated to the uprising.

I wish upon Hitler and all who follow him and his failed, cowardly philosophy to this day, a birthday like the Jews gave Hitler in 1943.

I end with another part of last night's Haggadah that is quite appropriate in light of the events of 1943:

Zog Nit Keynmol
(The Partisan Song)
composed by Hirsh Glick
hymn of the Vilna Partisan Brigade

Yiddish:
Zog nit keynmol az du geyst dem letztn veg,
Ven himlen blayene farshteln bloyeh teg.
Kumen vet nokh undzer oysgebenkte sho,
S'vet a poyk ton undzer trot: Mir zeinen do!

English:
Never say that there is only death for you,
Though leaden skies may be concealing days of blue.
Because the hour that we hungered for is near,
Beneath our tread the earth shall tremble:
We are here!

Bookmark/Search this post with:

| | | | | | | |